Gottlieb benger



2 Sheets-Sheet 1, G. BENGER.

SHIRT. No. 448,812.

(ModeL) Pat ented Mar. 24, 1891.

U ITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GOTTLIEB BENGER, OF STUTTGART, GERMANY.

SHIRT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.448,812, dated March 24, 1891.

Serial No. 359,173. (Model) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GorrLIEB BENGER, of Stuttgart, Germany, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Buttonless Shirts, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to buttonless shirts that is to say, shirts having no front or back slit, but which are provided with a flap or flaps attached to the body of the shirt, but unattached at their upper edges, so that the slip-opening at the neck of the shirt may be enlarged on drawing on the shirt, while these overlapping edges will again be drawn to gether and close around the neck of the wearer when the shirt has been fully drawn on.

The object of my invention is to increase the size of the slip-opening to the utmost when the neck of the shirt is expanded and considerably more than in the constructions of shirts heretofore made for this purpose. I attain this object by and my invention consists in a shirt comprising a body portion and two separate flaps or plies attached with a portion of their upper edges to the upper edges of the body portion, one at each side thereof, while the remainder of the saidupper edges is unattached, and the said unattached portions extend in opposite directions from the neck-opening. The said flaps extend entirely across the front and back, respectively, of the shirt, and are attached at their lower edges, preferably, to the outside of the front and back of the said body portion; and my invention consists in such further features as will be set forth below, and covered in the claims.

In the drawings accompanying this specification, Figure 1 represents a front elevation of a shirt embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a rear elevation, and Fig. 3 a vertical trans verse section, of the same on line 00 as, Fig. 1; Figs. 4 and 5, a perspective view and an elevation, respectively, of the tubular shirtbody; Figs. 6 and 7, detail views of the rear and front flap; and Fig. 8, an elevation of the shirt-body with the front and rear flaps attached at the shoulder-seams, but spread out and away from the body.

The body portion A (shown detached in Figs. 4 and 5) consists, preferably, of a seamless tube, such as may be produced in the knitting-machine in a well-known manner,

although the same may be made in any other suitable or convenient Way and need not necessarily be seamless. I preferably form this body at its top in the manner shownthat is to say, with the shoulder-edges b and c for the front andback, respectively; and with the somewhat cut-out or concave edges h 0 also for the front and back, respectively,'and forming a portion of the neck-opening.

The neck-opening a of the shirt is completed by the flaps B 0, (shown detached in Figs. 6 and 7,) which are attached or sewed with their edges 12 0 forming the outer ends of the upper edges of these flaps, to the shoulder edges 1) c on opposite sides of the body portion to form the shoulder-seam, while their hollowed-out or concave edges b 0 remain unattached. The shirt-body after this step is in the form represented in Fig. 8. The flaps B C are then folded over and further attached or sewed to the body of the shirt by bending at the shoulder-seams b 0 and laying the flap C 011 the outside of the shirt front and the flap B on the outside of the shirt back and sewing them to the front and back, respectively, at the lower edges 1) c and, preferably, also at the side edges; but the upper edges 12 0 must under all circumstances remain unattached; These unattached upper edges 11 0 as will be noted, extend entirely across the front and back,.respectively, of the body portion and in opposite directions from the neck-opening. By this construction and mode of attachment the upper edges of the shirt-body and of the flaps are caused to in terlock.

I am enabled by the construction thus set forth to obtain the widest possible slip-opening, while at the same time the shirt when drawn on fits closely and snugly around the neck of the wearer.

Vhile I have shown what I consider the best form of carrying out my invention, it is manifest that the same may be modified in various ways without departing from the said invention. For example, the flaps B O, instead of being sewed to the outside of the shirt-body, may be sewed to the inside, or one flap may be sewed to the outside and the other to the inside. I do not, therefore, desire to be limited to the exact details of construction herein set forth; but

\Vhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A shirt comprising a body portion and re-enforeing flaps, as 13 0, extending across 5 the front and back, respectively, of the body portion, the outer end of the upper edges of each of said flaps being attached to the upper edges of said body portion, one at each side thereof, the remaining portion of said upper edges of the re-enforcing flaps being free and extending in opposite directions from the neck-opening and the lower edges of theflaps being attaehecLto the body portion, substantially as set forth.

2. A shirt comprising re-enforeing flaps, as 13 C, extending across the front and back, respectively, of the body a body portion and portion, the outer end of the upper edges of each of said flaps being attached to the upper edges of said body portion, one at each side thereof, the remaining portions of said upper edges of the re-enforcing flaps being free and extending in opposite directions from the neck-opening, the said flaps being, moreover, attached to the body portion at the outer sides of its front and back, respectively, substantially as set forth.

I11 testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GOTTLIEB BENGER.

Witnesses:

HERMANN SCHAEFFEH, AUGUST DRAUJZ. 

